Expert: Rev Philip Dacre - 6/30/2009

Question
I am going to give a talk at my University on the affects of Darwinism on Christianity. I would like to show two graphs to the audience to provide a visual summary.

I have compiled twelve subjects under two headings (A and B). If you are in position to provide answers, can you please rate each subject from 0 to 5. 0 being not relevant, 1 being slightly relevant, and 5 being very relevant. I will provide one graph for heading A and another graph for heading B.


A. Assess top level changes in religion in relation to Darwinism:
1. Complements Christianity (rate 0 to 5)
(e.g complements the literal interpretation of Bible and potentially responsible for more followers)
2. Conflicts with Christianity (rate 0 to 5)
(e.g. conflicts with the literal interpretation of Bible and potentially responsible for loss of followers)
3. Causes compromise in Christianity (rate 0 to 5)
(e.g. some may argue intelligent design and theistic evolution are compromises)
4. Causes conflict within and towards Christianity (rate 0 to 5)
(e.g. Conflict within: conflict within the Church as the result of different interpretation of Darwinism) / (e.g. Conflict towards: Increased conflict initiated from atheists)
5. Greater interfaith interaction with other religions (rate 0 to 5)
(e.g. interfaith interaction with other Abrahamic religions and Indic religions)
6. None of the above subjects (rate 0 to 5)

B) Assess reasons for continued stability of belief in Christianity in relation to Darwinism
7. Darwinism does not perfectly answers evolution (rate 0 to 5)
(e.g. Recent genetic theory called genetic drift is also an important factor in evolution)
8. Scientific answers supporting Darwinism not always satisfactory (rate 0 to 5)
(e.g. Passing genes is not a satisfying reason for meaning and purpose of life)
9. Antisocial interpretations of Darwinism in society (rate 0 to 5)
(e.g. racism, eugenics and euthanasia)
10. Neutrality or benefits of religion in society (rate 0 to 5)
(e.g. Neutrality: Not always responsible for all wars and genocide) / (e.g. Benefits: Provides fabric of society, and fair distribution of financial resources)
11. Rise of a global community (rate 0 to 5)
(e.g. The sharp rise in Christianity in Africa)
12. None of the above subjects (rate 0 to 5)

I appreciate any comment that you can provide such as the reasons for your answers.

Many thanks.


Answer
Dear PJA,
I am both  a biologist and minister of God. Charles Darwin wrote the "Origin of the Species", like Einstein he could have got things wrong but some of what he found out was the undeniable truth.

I have to answer this question my way... sorry I can follow your multiple choice answer.

I am Christian not Hindu. Darwin talked of evolution. An undeniable fact. What is his conjecture is that he did not bring into his hypothesis the possibility of  a living God. A Creator. Both of these could have work side by side. We breed dogs and make all kinds of new breeds within a few years. We can see  changes in the plant and animal kingdom.

Since death entered the planet earth things changed and life began to get short of food and adapt to this. Predators began. And their prey developed to combat these attacks. Predators also adapted (more slowly) to overcome these changes and earn the right to live in a continuum that allowed predation such as earth had become after Eden. So this adaptation we call "Evolution". Where believers and scientists have conflict is not with the obvious existence of evolution but the date and times factor... more specifically carbon dating.

We see that before the flood of Genesis things were not uniform in the deterioration of carbon and other elements. Such as scientists assume and hypothesize. They work on an un-factual basis to assume this. Our scripture (which is not a scientific thesis) tells us that there were many differences in the early days before Noah's flood.

Men lived for nearly a 1000 years, no rain and the land masses had not yet separated. And  this all just in a few thousand years ago.

Of course Darwinism is part of secular humanistic theology today and based on the assumption of uniformity in elemental degradation it makes huge assumptions about the age of the earth. Not admitting the existence of a Creator it sees the need for evolutionary changes to take millions of years, working backwards at the rate of change today in the life species and extrapolating this in reverse. It sees the need for millions of years for this evolution to take place from original life forms We, on the other hand, see a Creator. Who also could have taken millions of years to make earth, because He is ageless.

But did it in 7 days. If He exists then it is easy for Him to do this. We believe He exists. Secular humanists believe He doesn't exist. Its still faith and doubt. No scientific evidence for either. It requires a belief factor.

So Darwinism creates doubts by given an alternative way of life forming (which God could have used anyway had He wanted) By so doing Darwinism as a theological ideology has offered a way for us to doubt our scriptures, but it has not proven this, only assumed as no one can find out for sure the real half life of carbon degradation nor whether it has always degraded at the uniform rate scientists now assume.

Hope this helps a bit to show another side.

God bless.